Change, change and more change.
About 6 weeks ago I shared our new plans for the rest of 2020, but it didn’t take long for those plans to change again. I’d mentioned in that post that we were planning on visiting Maine during August, but a reader subsequently commented to let us know that Maine has strict quarantine requirements.
When looking into those quarantine rules, it didn’t look like they were likely to be raised by August, so we had to come up with other plans. We’ve now booked most of our accommodation through August, so here’s what we’re up to.
Mid-June To Mid-July – Ohio
These plans haven’t really changed, although they have been confirmed. When writing that previous post I’d said that we’d likely stay in Cincinnati and that’s what we ended up booking. We’ll be staying in a hotel for a month which will feel a little weird after spending the last couple of months in Airbnbs.
We’ll be in a one bedroom suite which will have a full kitchen, so it’ll be a bit like being in an apartment. I’d normally be excited about having access to a fitness room again as it would mean I wouldn’t have to go jogging outside in the heat of the summer. I’m not convinced jogging in a room full of water droplets from other people who’ve been exercising is a great idea right now though due to COVID-19, so hopefully Cincinnati turns out to be cooler than Wichita has been for the last few weeks so that I have no excuse for not running outside.
The great thing is that a month in Cincinnati means I’ll definitely have time to do a new Cincinnati chili challenge 🙂
Last Week Of July
After Cincinnati we’ll now be heading southeast rather than northeast to Maine. We’ll have just over a week from when we leave Ohio to get to our next destination, so we’ll likely stay somewhere for a week along the way.
A few cities we’ll be passing through are Knoxville and Chattanooga in Tennessee and Atlanta in Georgia. My initial thinking is that Atlanta would make sense because we missed out on much of the city when we visited in 2018 because our dog Truffles was sick for most of that time and so we couldn’t leave her by herself in the hotel room.
Visiting Atlanta in the middle of a pandemic doesn’t seem like it’ll be a great idea though because most of the things we’ll want to visit will be places we’ll want to avoid for safety. It might therefore be better if we simply book a week somewhere a little more rural where we might have some hiking nearby.
August
We’re still planning on meeting up with Shae’s mom and stepdad in August because Shae and her mom both celebrate their birthdays that month. We’ve therefore booked a house with a pool in Florida for the entire month, with Shae’s parents joining us for a couple of weeks mid-month.
The spike in cases of COVID-19 in Florida recently have us a little nervous – more for Shae’s parents that ourselves. We’re therefore not planning on going out and doing a bunch of touristy things while we’re in the Sunshine State which is one of the reasons we booked somewhere with a pool to ourselves.
One activity we do hope to do while down there though is swimming with manatees!
September-December
The rest of the year is up in the air right now. We’d originally planned to spend September in Virginia, but we might visit North Carolina instead seeing as we haven’t spent any time there on the road trip yet.
We’re still due to be visiting Europe for the month of October, but we’ve no idea whether or not that’ll end up going ahead. If there’s a second wave of infections, it could result in more border closures and/or travel restrictions or two week quarantine rules, so that’s something we’re still playing by ear. We’d hopefully be flying in business class (provided our upgrades clear), so that would at least help a little with social distancing on the flights. It might end up being a last minute decision as to whether we go on that trip, so this is definitely a case of waiting to see how things progress.
November and December is also up in the air. I’ll be very busy with one of my other sites – GC Galore – because of all the gift card deals that come out during the holiday season. As a result, we might just end up staying in the same place for a couple of months so that we don’t have to keep moving all the time.
Because of that being the holiday season, it might make sense to spend that time in Virginia so that we can be near family and friends. We haven’t really thought that far ahead though, so we likely won’t make any decisions for a few months yet.
So that’s where we are right now, but we’ll no doubt end up making even more changes to our plans by the end of the year seeing as nothing after August is set in stone.
Having a house with a pool for a month sounds great! I am definitely missing my pool time, but not keen on public pools at the moment.
Yep, I’m also a little nervous of outdoor lakes and beaches if there are lots of people there. I don’t usually take advantage of hotel pools, but I’ll hopefully make more of an effort with this one seeing as it’ll be right there and we’ll have it to ourselves.
Hello: Gosh, it’s not easy now is it? Remind me, if you get to Europe in October do you bring little Truffles? So enjoy reading-be safe.
Unfortunately not this time. We’d looked into taking her with us last year, but there aren’t many airlines that fly from the US to the UK which let you bring your pet. I think United was the only one – that meant it was going to cost us even more, plus self-quarantining her beforehand and getting vet reports was going to be a lot of hassle and expense.
We’d love to take her there one day though!
Cincinnati is fine to run outside as long as you get started early in the morning
That’s one of my problems – I’m definitely more of a night person than a morning person!